Listening is an Act of Love at Philadelphia's Constitution Center

I went to Philadelphia's Constitution Center last night to hear Dave Isay, founder of StoryCorps and regular radio producer for NPR talk about his work as a gatherer of stories. He said this is his life's work. How refreshing to hear of a man who has found his work, and that work is helping other people find their own stories and share them with the people they love. This is the human experience at its best.

Radio personalities are "different" from the bigger than life celebrities on television. Even though they have influenced me for much of my life, since I don't see them they don't project an overpowering sense of celebrity. So for example, Terri Gross introduced the evening. Wow. Terri Gross. I listen to her as many days as I can. She is like intellectual and cultural oxygen in an underwater world. And there she was a few feet away (I was sitting on the front row.) And Jane Eisner, Vice President for National Programs at the Constitution Center did the interview. I just stared at her, trying to understand how she could speak so intelligently, in complete sentences no less. Unlike politicians who speak in routine phrases or actors who read scripts, these public figures actually come up with intelligent observations. I love it. It turned out the "founder of Public Radio" was in the audience, an unassuming man, in an overcoat who started All Things Considered in 1971. (I didn't catch his name. Anyone know it? Bill Semring?) And he was just there, sitting in the audience.

Going into Philadelphia and sitting in a live audience a few feet away from live performers seems so retro, and yet so real. It's an treat, amidst my busy life, to occasionally experience these rather esoteric benefits of living within the orbit of this major metropolitan community.

If you're interested in storytelling or memoir writing, check out my blog entry on the topic at Memory Writers Network